FAQs

YES! Even though we strongly recommend saving the number 1300347278 into your phone, if you dial the entire 1300DISASTER into your phone, you will still get through.

We are certainly appreciative of what these current services provide, and are not looking to take over or replace any of them. Research any disaster that has occurred and you’ll appreciate how quickly they become overwhelmed.

There are also certain tasks that groups such as the S.E.S aren’t able to provide, and will refer these tasks to contractors or businesses such as 1300DISASTER.

1300DISASTER is just another option available to overwhelmed communities as well as providing an all-year-round service to ensure our members are educated, prepared and know who they are dealing with if a disaster does occur.

Definitely not, however as we grow nationally, our aim is to continue to meet with Government and Emergency Service providers to establish relevant and respectful partnerships and Memorandums of Understanding to assist them more where we can with personnel and resources. We worked in well with all emergency, defence, government and community stakeholders during Cyclone Debbie (Queensland - 2017), winning our parent business Aidforce, the Resilient Australia Award (Queensland Winner) for innovation. We believe we can do this for any disaster situation.

As with any membership we offer, 1300DISASTER knows the importance of the continuation of business when impacted by a disaster. These memberships and the one phone number to remember allows you to provide us will all of your issues that require attention, with the peace of mind that we’ll manage them promptly.

The discount for your staff also is good for your business, knowing that your staff are prepared, better able to respond and recover quicker, ensuring they can still turn up to work when a disaster strikes.

There is a massive trend towards corporate responsibility and catering to staff needs in return for better performance, employee satisfaction and business protection. Canva are a great example of how businesses today are looking after there staff and families, because of the return on this investment. Disaster Management support for staff is the future trend for business continuity.

In many cases yes, however we strongly recommend you seek further advice from your accountant.

We have certainly started these conversations with businesses and updates on discounts will be provided soon. Already on the cards are discounts on fuel, gym memberships and insurance. Note: Some of these discounts will be nationally available, with others only available locally dependent on each region.

We are continuing to lobby insurance companies to come to the table. For example - Our ’Home Resilience Health Checks’ have been a great example of improving the preparedness of homes for disaster events and educating our members (included for free with each membership purchased) and we aim to have insurance companies get on board so that the more resilient our members become, the more of a discount they are eligible for.

100%. However, depending on the urgency of your task/s, we are committed to our members first. You will most likely be paying full price for the services or products provided and may have to wait on other members to be served first. It is much easier to join as a member to save any hassles and stress.

Great question! Not to take away the great work of other volunteer groups, however often there are times and circumstances that unfortunately means volunteers cannot turn up to volunteer. Examples can include not being certified for certain tasks, obstacles restricting access to leave their own property, employers not allowing leave for that period of time, fear of monetary loss/ little monetary compensation or just not being able to show up due to personal reasons (which we can’t blame them for)!

We at 1300DISASTER believe in the share economy and that if our surge staff/ partner businesses and network of providers are good at what they do and well compensated, there is more assurance our members will be assisted, our staff will turn up to tasks/ training and our services can grow to assist more regions around Australia.

We also do not want just anybody signing up as a surge personnel member. Therefore, we ask that they make a commitment to themselves and their community - with the money going towards initial basic uniform, insurance and a growing network of professionals. From experience, if we just open up opportunities to anybody, we can get quite a few who are not fit for the ethos of 1300DISASTER.

We wouldn’t expect that Menulog Delivery Driver, Uber Driver or Roadside Assistance Mechanic to provide their convenience and service for free, therefore we won’t try and expect that of our amazing team.

Yes. We are proud of the assistance we provided to these types of stakeholders in our Cyclone Debbie response in 2017, particularly Domestic Violence Victims and children who were compoundly affected by both the disaster and violence at the same time.

We are currently establishing ourselves as an NDIS provider, and encourage anyone to reach out, as we will proudly provide assistance and prices unique to their particular situation.

Definitely. Of course we will not put our staff and supporting businesses at risk, and will enter these zones and areas when safe to do so. Most likely this will be done in partnership with other services. Our difference is, that with our home resilience health checks, constant follow-up support and services to our members year round - they will know what to do and where to go, with a better prepared evacuation kit compared to if we didn’t exist.

We are not a reactionary force that turn up to fix the issues a location is facing, we are there weeks and months before a crisis strikes educating stakeholders, a more measured and calm response capability and a longer term recovery agency that is apart of the area permanently, ensuring no one is left out, particularly as the shock and mental health issues can arise months or years after a disaster occurs.

Our other difference is that we invest in our communities to become more resilient through school programs, investment in new innovative disaster response techniques/ technologies and have an obsession with researching the latest trends so that we can work with all stakeholders to improve the future of the disaster and emergency management industry - with ZERO red tape. As we grow, the improvements to community resilience will grow with us.